Day 1: Flights (Munich/Bologna) & Florence

Florence, Italy

The long flight from Chicago to Munich was surprisingly very relaxing. Mom flew Business Class, while Jeff, Bryan and I decided to upgrade to Economy Plus. The extra leg room made such a big difference (even for me at 5’2!). Mom had quite the spread for dinner and was too full to take United up on their dessert offering (an “entirely too large bowl of ice cream”). I’m sure Bryan is willing to help mom out with that one on the flight home 🙂 Our dinner included BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, a salad and brownie. Not too bad (seemed a lot like a TV dinner) – I was glad to have a bite to eat, and was ready to cozy up and snooze only about 30 minutes after dinner serviced ended (only about 5.5/6 hours were left at this point). I put on the movie Chef (was very impressed but the quantity of various movies and TV shows offered to keep you entertained on the flight), and when it was over decided to power down the video screen to sleep…I felt well rested when all cabin lights returned back on for breakfast, but discovered I had only actually slept for about an hour at best. The warm croissant and fresh fruit were very refreshing and I quickly got excited to arrive in Munich! The Munich Airport was very nice – clean, full of various shops and many neat dining options. I loved the many chandeliers displayed in so many of the shops and kiosk! After a quick stop at the passport verification booths to proceed to our gates, we decided an authentic German beer was a requirement even thought it was about 10AM local time (we only had about an hour to take in Munich, can you blame us?!). Mom stuck to water since she’s not a beer drinker, while Jeff & Bryan enjoyed a pilsner and I had my favorite German beer, Heffeweisen (even got mom to try a sip). We shared the Bavarian Style breakfast (soft pretzel with two weisswurst and that amazing mustard) that I mentioned in my last post and headed to our gate. I love the people of Europe already! So friendly and willing to help you with the language. When requesting the check, our waitress was kind enough to teach us that the literal translation we had used meant “test/to check your knowledge.” She had fun chatting with us and asked to hop in our picture (Ill be sure to post this one later – it’s on Jeff’s phone)! Right by our gate we saw an interesting site, a “smoking station” sponsored by Camel – it was literally a glass box full of anyone smoking that was only about a 10ft x 15ft space. On the glass was “Smoking Kills You.” But then, Bryan spotted the FREE coffee stations!! He was in his glory and couldn’t decide which to try. Still hoping to catch a few zzz’s on our next fight, I passed on coffee…Mom tried a hot chocolate because she didn’t care for the coffee option she sampled and Bry had some type of espresso. It was then time to board. We checked in at the gate, and the nice German Lufthansa flight attendant smirked and said “oh! You have a German last name!” as I passed through to board the little shuttle bus taking us to our plane. Made me smile and feel very welcomed. On this short hour flight to Bologna I managed to catch an amazing power nap, enjoy a glass of sparkling wine and some delicious crackers served with fresh Parmesan. Mom & Jeff also napped (they wondered what Bry and I were talking about when they saw the picture of our wine and little cracker pack). Landing in Bologna was so pretty – spotted several well managed farms, beautiful green grass and noticed solar panels on most roofs with some mountains in the distance. We were very promptly met by our driver, Beppe! A sweet, and very energetic 56 year old man who we became fast friends with. During our hour drive to Florence he taught us so much! We learned that Textiles are the major source for the economy and that Bologna is the major hub for car dealerships (passed the largest BMW dealership in Italy here and we were shocked to see it didn’t seem any larger than our dealerships in Ohio). During the drive the rolling hills were beautiful to take in (Beppe informed us the hills in Tuscany will be even better!) as we traveled through the Alpennine Mountains. Beppe shared that this mountain range protects Florence from the cold/snow, hence it never freezes in Florence (FYI: today was a beautiful 79*/sunny day compared to the 50* weather we left in CLE/CHI/Munich) . After a few more turns and twists through the main Italian highway (they call in the spine, as it runs north to south from Milan down to Naples), we entered the suburbs and then city center of Florence. During our ride, Beppe told us the story of how pizza Margherita came to be for the Queen (Margherita) and not even a block from our apartment pointed out the statue of her husband, King Umberito I. I love the entrance to our apartment (and all the decorative/massive doors throughout Florence)! We hiked up about 5 flights of stairs and made it to our charming Florence apartment that will be home until Friday morning (see photos). After a quick refresh and a little unpacking, we all wanted to go explore! We literally made a right and a left and stumbled upon the Duomo! Oh my goodness is this an impressive structure! It’s simply breathtaking, as I’m sure much of this trip will be! I’m in love with the renaissance style architecture all around us, and all the rows of Vespas! Tomorrow we have a 3 hour walking tour of the city which includes a tour of the Duomo, so we decided to keep walking and look for a bite to eat. Glad to have access to Google maps as we explored, as the winding streets are very easy to get lost in. We found an Osteria highly recommended on Yelp, so decided to head that direction….or so we thought! The buildings are so dense that we quickly learned we weren’t getting the best GPS signal, but every ‘wrong turn’ lead us to a spectacular site! We stumbled upon the plaza right outside Giotto’s Bell Tower. Again, I’m simply fascinated by every detail on each building! Unfortunately, the Osteria was full for the night (located on an alley just off the main plaza). We decided we couldn’t get enough of the views from the square and were all ready for some food, so went back there to eat on a patio of a restaurant called Caffe Perseo that had quite the crowd (must be good, right?). Our server was simply charming and helped us navigate the menu/with our Italian, and we enjoyed fresh prosciutto bruschetta, a great bottle of Chianti, and various classic pasta dishes to ease into our Italian adventure (lasagna, tortellini, pasta with meat sauce). Even though I’m not much of a dessert eater, we all contemplated what to share – this restaurant had an incredible selection (we saw the most fresh blackberries with fresh whip cream and some little cookies to scoop up the whip cream next to us). However, we all decided we needed a little walking before dessert. We decided to find the gelato shop our driver, Beppe, had recommended and simply took in more of the scenes of Florence. The gelato was indeed fabulous (and I’m in love with the little mini size cup you can get of it), but we were all quickly starting to get tired. We started to wonder toward home, but got turned around and discovered the square right outside the main basilica in town! A gorgeous white building that was our back drop as the sun began to set. We figured out our location on the map, made a quick stop at a local market to have a few basics at our apartment and got settled in. We had all intentions of sharing wine on our cute private Terrance, but Jetleg got the best of us! We all headed to bed immediately….and now Bry and I are wide awake at 1AM local time! Jetleg: 1 Brittney: 0 Figured we’d put in a quick update now and try to head back to bed! Our walking tour starts promptly at 9am, so we’ll get up in a few more hours. Very glad I do well with little sleep! Caio!